GeneralDisorder

Wow - that thing get hit by lightning? The mileage is low for that many codes. I would start with the lowest numbered code first unless there was a pressing reason not to. Try doing the knock sensor and then clearing them. GD

Subaru probably suspects that the same flaw exists on both heads. You may not know this, but Subaru uses the same castings for both right and left heads - only some of the port drilling and machining are different. Thus if there was a flaw in some parts used durring manufacture of the heads (improperly ground seats, etc) then it could exist on both sides. This is all the more likely given both of the original heads were likely made side-by-side on the same equipment. They may have seen this before and they know that it wasn't an isolated case thus they are making sure that there is no possilbility of a second failure. Good stuff. Glad they are taking care of you! GD

That's an EA71 (1.6) top-mount starter engine. Unless you also change the tranny there are no larger/newer engines that are compatible. That was the last (and largest) of the top-mount starter engines. If you go to the EA81 side-starter transmission you can install an EA81 (1.8), an EA82 (1.8 OHC), or by the use of an adaptor plate you could install just about anything in the EJ line up - easiest would be an EJ22 (2.2) but EJ25's are possible. There is also the ER27 (2.7L H6) that shares the same bell-housing as the EA81/EA82 but is rare, expensive to maintain, and will not fit behind the radiator without major frame and body work. GD

The fan nuts suck. Long pattern 10mm and a long flat-blade screwdriver to keep the fan from turning. The crank pulley is easily removed or installed with a 1/2" ratchet and a hand sledge. Like a 3 or 4lb sledge. Just whack the end of the ratchet handle. It's like an impact gun but cheaper . I do it all the time. GD

More like the Aluminium gets lodged in the abrasive....... You have to use the right type of abrasive for sure. Just as you use Silicon Carbide for sharpening carbide tools but you use Aluminium Oxide for grinding HSS..... If I had to guess I would say it's probably done with a diamond impregnated wheel. Aluminium is very soft and will easily clog most conventional grinding stones. With the right lubricant and grinding medium though it is defintely possible. When I have hand-lapped Subaru heads I have used conventional Aluminium Oxide wet/dry paper and WD40 as a lubricant. You have to clean the paper (with WD40) every half dozen passes or it clogs badly. But it does produce a fine finish and so we can say that undoubtely there are methods that allow abrasive resurfacing of aluminium cylinder heads. The shop I take mine to does not care if they are still assembled or not. I leave the valves in but remove everything else. It's just easier that way. I haven't had a problem yet and they clean them very well before giving them back to me. GD

Typically you don't use a flycutter (which is a type of milling head) to resurface heads. A blanchard grinder is a rotatry surface grinder that rotates the work against a counter-rotating grinding head that is generally cone shaped, etc. The grinding head is first "dressed" against a carbide tool that is attached to the work table - this causes the grinding head to be 100% true with the table and thus anything you bolt down to the table will automatically be parallel to the grinding head. Grinding produces the best and most consistent surface RA for head gasket adhesion apart from hand lapping of course - but it's MUST faster than hand working a set of heads. The characteristic circular swoops you see in the surface of the head are from the grinding operating - the same can be seen in a resurfaced flywheel. Basically - any modern thing that is machined to a flat surface and has to be flat to within say one thou is ground anymore. Grinding can easily produce both the best suface finish and the highest accuracy - most of the flat surfaces found in a machine shop are ground to within .0001" and I've seen granite sufaces certified to within .00001" Other ways including running the head against a belt sander (sounds bad I know but there's a method for doing this), or surfacing them by hand with a lapping plate and either grinding compound or wet-dry paper (yes - I have done this and it is very effective albiet time consuming ) Flycutters, but comparison, have the tendancy to "trench" if the milling head isn't properly trammed to the table and work surface. The larger the cutter, the harder it is to properly setup and the more sensitive it will be to the head tram. I would be more likely to bolt the head to a lathe faceplate and face it off if I had to choose between that and a flycutter. GD

Yep - just state the facts and let people decide for themselves. Don't use foul language either. Just state what you bought and when - how it was represented, what you actually got, and what they *haven't yet* done to make it right. Don't make any claims of mis-representation or attack the owner's/salesman on a personal level. Just state the facts of the case. People can infer from the the sign and the flyer that you are not pleased and will be able to read enough between the lines to get the gist of what they are doing to you. Sometimes it is better to let people's imaginations fill in the blanks for you - they will do a better job of it than you can legally do without slandering someone This place doesn't *have* to help you fix it. You bought it as-is. But that doesn't mean you can't make them *want* to fix it to get you off their sidewalk and driveing away their customers. . Just because they don't have to do anything by law doesn't mean they won't want to shut you up. Justice doesn't have to come at the point of a gun. They are greedy and self-interested so you have to play their game. Give them the reasoning they desire to help you. GD

"Ask me about the way I was treated at ______ used car's" Wear nice clothes - look like an upstanding citizen. Print some flyers with a picture of the car you bought, a picture of the salesman, and a description of the way you were treated. Be polite, don't be loud, but DO talk to passers-by. Be brief - hand them a flyer and urge them to think twice about shopping there. GD

The proper reply to those claims is "prove it". They say it's "most likely" something simple - well then how about you FIX it before I buy it since you already know what's wrong...... . I mean... .really?!? They can't install a $10 set of plugs to make a sale? I'm walking if that's the case...... Coolant does get pushed into the overflow - but the radiator is ALWAYS full. The coolant expands as it is heated. Air space in the radiator is impossible under normal conditions. If it is low then there's a problem - period. If this were a car designed without an overflow they would be correct. There will be air-space to allow for expansion. But that style system hasn't even been legal since the '80's. They lied - and you may have a case because of that. But at the same time you as a consumer need to be skeptical of claims made by people that want your money. As Bill Jones says - "It is Immoral to let a sucker keep his money"...... don't be a sucker! The best way to get back at them is to drive away future customers - tell everyone and if you have nothing better to do - hold a sign out in front of their lot . Legal action may be warranted as well but won't hurt them as much as bad publicity. Call the local TV stations and see if they will do a public intrest peice on it - you might be able to find other folks with poor experiences there if you do the sign-holding bit. If you really plan to pursue legal action agains these people then you will be best served by getting a repair diagnostic at the Subaru dealer. They will have ASE certified folks there. Tell them your situation and if they need to charge you $100 for the diagnostic, etc then that can be added to the legal fees, etc. GD

Perfectly acceptable. The valves will be ground and lapped to the new seats. That is normal practice on a rebuild even when engines have several hundred thousand miles - valves are not replaced unless burned/chipped or too thin to do a proper grind. Cams are never replaced unless damaged, etc. You are over-thinking this situation in the extreem. They are doing exactly what needs to be done - change the head due to the bad valve seat. The rest of these components are not a weak link in the engine - head gaskets and rod bearings will claim it somewhere after 300k miles - none of the things you are concerned about would be worn to any real extent even then. Yes - the head will come with valve guides and seats installed. There are no replaceable bearings anywhere in the valve train except the rockers which likely will never need replacement in the life of the engine and would not have been dissasembled anyway. None of that is neccesary and anti-seize is standard practice for plug threads but if it makes you feel better...... You should still replace the timing belt and all associated components at the reccomended 105k interval. Thus a new belt at this time is a waste of money. EJ belts are thick and strong and breakage is VERY rare - even when run long past their interval. Replacing it is just throwing money away frankly. GD

Head surfaces are not milled - they are ground and it's done in a "blanchard" grinder with flood coolant/cutting fluid which would carry away most of the grindings. It's possible there could be contamination but it's not real likely. Sounds like whatever it was it corrected itself. Though I would probably think about cleaning the heads again with bra-kleen, etc just to be sure there isn't anything that's going to cause a problem. GD

A D/A isn't out of the question on a tractor engine that's cast iron . But on Aluminium it's not a good call. If it's me I'm calling the customer and telling them they should consider another engine - the possibility of the head gasket blowing in the future from an improper block surface RA is a little troubling. And having the block resurfaced is problematic without complete dissasembly - at which point you are basically looking at a ground-up rebuild and a used engine would be cheaper. On the other hand it ran for the last 45k so....... I would be concerned about oil and coolant leaks mostly since it obviously has good enough surfaces to hold the fire rings from blowing out. Still - it's a lot of work that you are preparing to do..... possibly to solve nothing at all if it still weeps fluids when you are done due to a poor surface RA for gasket adhesion. GD

It can be done - I've put plenty of EA82 SPFI manifolds on EA81's and I know of a couple people that have put the EA82 carb manifold's on as well. Not saying there won't be any modifications needed but it can and has been done. GD

Alternator is dead and putting out stray AC current - replace it. GD

Plugs and wires can be done anytime very easily - you could do those on your own. If it were me - I would regap them and put them back in. Very unlikely the electrodes are burned away to the point of requireing replacement. Clean and regap - there is really not much point in replacement yet. GD

Sounds like a simple warantee issue. Things like this do crop up from time to time - casting flaw or machining error perhaps. As with any mass produced machine you are going to have an occasional random failure. I would guess that the valve hung open slightly but not far enough to hit the piston top. Perhaps a valve seat came loose? Either that or a tweaked valve guide or maybe a stray bit of casting got lodged between the guide and the valve stem..... etc. In the business we call these "SCR Failures". SCR stands for "Stray Cosmic Ray" . Sounds like you have a handle on it. Timing belt really isn't neccesary as they are good for 105k miles and frankly if it were me I wouldn't want to skip the 105k belt change as that's about when the water pump, front seals, and all the idlers/tensioners ought to be changed from a preventative standpoint. Personally I don't subscribe to this "we only change the belt and never anything else unless it fails" mentality. If one of those items fails it's going to BREAK the belt and then you are in for a world of $hit. GD

It's frankly amazing that it ran at all. I must say that head gaskets are very tough and tenacious critters from my own experience. Other than the factory failures - which generally still take 10's of K's and sometimes 100k+ to begin leaking - most of the time I'm impressed with their ability to hold even after being abused. That story is some of the worst I've ever heard - but part of me cheers for the Subaru engineers that this thing held compression and ran without overheating in a big way . The grooving and rough surface finish are just icing on the cake - that it held as well as it did is simply a testament to the head gasket design people. That is AWESOME. The alignment sleeve being peeled back like that is unforgivable and running a D/A over the heads and block to clean them borders on idiocy. I can't beleive the dealer is even at fault here beyond hireing a complete fool for a mechanic. That is what I would expect from some tweaker doing it in the section 8 housing parking lot. . GD

Pass - that's an EA82 and a vastly inferior vehicle to the Legacy's you are considering. GD

It's the wrong axle - they gave you an EA82 25 spline axle for a turbo model. I'm surprised you were able to install it at all. Either that or they used the wrong DOJ cup when they built it. GD

So hopefully I have your attention if you own an EA81 Hatchback (1980 to 1989). These rear window latches are a troublesome deal. Pretty much your choices before now were to try and find/beg/borrow/steal a good set - since you can't buy them through Subaru, or shut the rear windows forever with silicone, etc. Used latches rarely last more than a year or two it seems - even if you don't use them . In trying to keep my rear windows working I've gone through half a dozen latch's in like three years time . The problem: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/hatchlatch1.jpg I asked another member here (lostinthe202) whom I am aquianted with, and who does machine work on some fancy equipment for his real job, to make up new handles from Aluminium. The solution: In addition to my set, he is making more for sale to board members - here is his post with the details: http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=113869 This will likely be your ONLY shot at getting a set. He has the ability to make these RIGHT NOW and that could change in the future - I highly sugest anyone with a hatch keep this in mind and order a set now as this could be the only run of these that he makes. This is not the "for sale" post so direct any questions you have regarding purchase and options to Will in the for sale section. This post is to get the word out there and to show off my shiny new latches with pictures of the install, etc. . *I* am not selling these so don't PM me! I am merely endorsing them and provided the core samples for their reproduction. GD

Wheel bearings are easy - you don't need a press for them. Just go to any bearing house and pickup the bearings - you want 6207-2RS-C3 - 2 per side. Drift the old one's out with a brass punch and install the new one's with a large socket or a punch - just make sure you only pound on the outer race at all times. GD

I can only speak to the policy's of the retailer that I purchase my axles through (www.discountimportparts.com). Thus far I haven't had any trouble - I had a non-EMPI branded axle (their other brand that I don't like) that was making noises and they replaced it no questions asked (with my receipt). I also had a boot failure (1/2" gash) on the replacement of that same axle and while they did not cover the boot, they did give me the boot kit for $6 instead of the normal $12 which was a nice gesture I thought considering that the axle was only a few months old at the time. From what I understand - if the boot is torn and not addressed promptly then the warantee is void - but they don't cover the boot itself..... I don't like this policy but I can see why it would be the case as they can't very well warantee soft rubber parts that can be damaged easily by mis-handling and road debris. Technically, I know if you tell them you are racing or off-roading with them the warantee is void. But as long as you don't do that I've had them tell me that customer's occasionally bring in axles that are just a baggy of parts and they still warantee them. I imagine if you did it a lot they would probably figure something is going on. GD

These guys have them for $78 and free shipping: http://www.car-stuff.com/carparts/subarugl19851989empiw0133-1618933589629.html?prodSlot=Product+Listings+Page%3A5 $73 + $7.50 shipping here: http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/1988/subaru/gl/driveshaft_-ar-_axle/axle_assembly.html Discount Import Parts will likely quote you $69. I have an account with them that I deal through so my cost is $65. It's not a big difference on those since it's a relatively low priced item. GD

They might - they have a web site but have never got it setup for online ordering - I'll bet they can ship them to you. Call and tell them what you want but be sure to INSIST that you only want the EMPI branded axles. They carry another line that they "fill in" with while the EMPI's are on order, etc. I don't like that brand near as much despite them telling me it's the same..... my inspection showed otherwise so don't let them tell you that. http://www.discountimportparts.com/index.html GD

Does the Ti have the air suspension? If so, and it still works (or hasn't already been replaced with standard gear), then just leave it be for now. If it's failed then you can easily and cheaply replace the shocks/struts all the way around for very reasonable money. You could even go with '96 Outback struts/springs and get a bit of suspension lift out of the deal. If it's not air-ride then I don't know what you are refering to since it has basically the same suspension as any other '90 to '94 wagon - possibly with upgraded sway bars. Clutch's are very dependant on the type of driver and the type of driving. 125k in-town is a LOT for a clutch. Not abnormal at all. I've seen plenty go farther but 125k is not at all unreasonable - that's right in line with what I would expect for an average that's split between some freeway and some city. At that mileage a new clutch is a GOOD thing not a bad thing to worry about. That's a nice feature that's going to save you money. GD